American/US Airways Flyers: Changes Coming for Miles, Upgrades, Bags

Frequent flyers of American and US Airways, heads up: Changes are coming to the two airlines’ loyalty programs next year when the miles balances for American’s AAdvantage and US Air’s Dividend Miles programs will be combined.

Of course, this will only affect fliers who belong to both programs but there are other changes the rest of us should be aware of as the two carriers inch closer to fully implementing their merger.

Changes Travelers Should Know About

Your miles are safe: Combining the miles of American and US Airways won’t cost you any miles, nor will you lose any. You can continue to fly and earn and bank miles as you normally would.

When will it happen: A precise date has not been announced, only that it’ll happen in 2015.

Immediate upgrade change for elites: Starting June 11, both airlines will extend same-day upgrade benefits to elite frequent fliers when flying on either carrier – within 24 hours of departure – and you can learn more about this on American’s AAdvantage page. Upgrades will be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis. By the way, this is being called an interim policy so it could change when full integration of both airlines’ miles programs takes place – again, at some unspecified date in the future.

Carry-on change: US Airways used to let you bring a carry-bag of 51 inches total dimension (add the number of inches in height+length+width) but now it will conform to American’s limit of 45 inches. Not a vast difference but if a gate agent bothers to check you might wind up paying a fee so measure your bag to be on the safe side.